West Lafayette residents are watching another alarming pattern unfold.
After promising to reduce industrial impact in the SK hynix corridor, Purdue Research Foundation (PRF) is now backing a major hospital site — right beside the city’s heaviest industrial zones.
The Facts
- Parkview Health plans to build a new hospital at the corner of Kalberer and Yeager Roads — immediately next to Site B (SK hynix’s I3 zone) and Site A, which already hosts a rocket-propellant and energetic-materials manufacturer.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1A2kkZNYD9/?mibextid=wwXIfr
https://www.basedinlafayette.com/p/fourth-hospital-plan-emerges-in-wl
- This comes just months after the city approved SK hynix’s 340,000-square-foot advanced packaging facility — a project that will use and discharge toxic and PFAS-contaminated chemicals.
- The same corridor is also where PRF and the City are planning a daycare center, placing both children and hospital patients inside potential impact zones for fire, explosion, or contamination.
https://www.change.org/p/petition-to-stop-heavy-industry-near-our-homes/u/33980234
- The proposed hospital will add heavy 24/7 traffic, ambulance noise, and strain on emergency-response capacity — the exact opposite of what a residential buffer should do.
Recent Developments
At the Area Plan Commission (APC) meeting last Wednesday, the downzone of Site A from I3 → OR (Office Research) was recommended for approval.
Commissioners, including two West Lafayette councilors Larry Leverenz and Kathy Parker — voted yes to recommend the downzone, and we appreciate their support. For those councilors who voted yes on the SK hynix rezone in May, trust may have been misplaced, but correction is never too late.
The APC staff report stated the change would “create a lesser impact on the surrounding residential neighborhoods” — a quiet admission that heavy industry is incompatible with this area’s growth pattern.
Back in May 2025, PRF told the public that Site A would only be downzoned if Site B was approved for SK hynix — a procedural maneuver designed to smooth the vote. Yet, instead of preserving Site A as a true low-impact zone, PRF is carving out new parcels for high-intensity uses like a hospital — the same tactic used to push through the SK hynix rezoning this spring.
Meanwhile, PRF is entangled in the IEDC audit — a state-level review citing transparency failures and conflicts of interest across Indiana’s economic-development network. This raises an obvious question: who truly benefits from PRF’s nonstop development pushes — the community, or its partners?
https://www.change.org/p/petition-to-stop-heavy-industry-near-our-homes/u/33947235
It Doesn’t Add Up
If Site A is “incompatible” with heavy industry, how can Site B — right beside it, surrounded by homes, parks, a daycare, and now a hospital — possibly be safe?
In Peoria, AZ, a similar advanced-packaging facility planned by Amkor was moved after residents and officials recognized the incompatibility near homes.
Read more: Construction Dive – Amkor semiconductor Arizona moved
https://www.constructiondive.com/news/amkor-semiconductor-arizona-moved/759362/
Take Action
- Email the Mayor (eeaster@westlafayette.in.gov) and City Council: City Council Contacts
https://www.westlafayette.in.gov/government/boards-and-commissions/city-council - Attend the City Council meeting, 6:30 pm, Nov 3, 2025 — demand accountability and an independent safety review.
- Share this petition and update widely.
- Support the legal fund → https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-our-neighborhood-from-industrial-threat
- Request or display a yard sign. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc07CMjsWD05B4ZEZhloiEx7akh9tWe-imCMiw9BmDop8BqsQ/viewform
- Follow for updates:
- Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/stopheavyindustry
- Website → https://stopheavyindustry.com/
- Newsletter → https://forms.gle/LP7ZUkqWA8wuK4pWA
West Lafayette deserves responsible planning — not reckless zoning that puts daycares and hospitals beside toxic industry.
We stopped being silent once. Now we must make sure they hear us again.
— Stop Heavy Industry Team